Spiders, Spiders, In the Night
When I look for alligators during a nighttime nature walk, I always have known that the best way to do this is to shine the flashlight along the water's edge, looking for a golden reflection from the eyes. I feel rather dumb now, because I didn't realize this would work for all creatures, not just alligators. I discovered from a book that if you hold a flashlight along your eyes, you can even see the reflections of tiny insect eyes. So I decided to try it out.
Theoretically I knew that there are lots of spiders running around the forest floor. But it's easy to ignore what you don't see. Now I've seen hundreds of bright little eyes staring up at me from the forest floor, down at me from the loblolly pine trees. Big old wolf spiders the thickeness of my thumb and tiny little tan things that can squeeze between two adjacent pieces of bark. It's very cool, and a little creepy. Things are so quiet on the web-building spider front in January that I assumed spiders would be pretty low in numbers until spring. But the more active land-and-tree hunting, non-web-building spiders definitely out there! I wonder what they're eating. Maybe each other.
Theoretically I knew that there are lots of spiders running around the forest floor. But it's easy to ignore what you don't see. Now I've seen hundreds of bright little eyes staring up at me from the forest floor, down at me from the loblolly pine trees. Big old wolf spiders the thickeness of my thumb and tiny little tan things that can squeeze between two adjacent pieces of bark. It's very cool, and a little creepy. Things are so quiet on the web-building spider front in January that I assumed spiders would be pretty low in numbers until spring. But the more active land-and-tree hunting, non-web-building spiders definitely out there! I wonder what they're eating. Maybe each other.